Wednesday, 25 November 2009

After the Supreme Court overturned previous rulings on unfair bank charges, Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester, told a Scottish Parliament committee that: "We should understand there is not a free lunch here, that banks have certain costs of doing business and if you don't get paid those costs in one way then you have to find them in another way."

Well when I was a kid the woods at the end of my road used to regularly get flooded...

Oh and there was this:

"The cool, wet summer of 1968 left the ground saturated. The weekend of 14 and 15th September was dominated by thunderstorms and torrential rain, with an astonishing 1,000 million tonnes of water falling on South-East England."

BTW in the 80s there was huge flood defences built on the Ember and the Mole's defences were completed last year.

OK not the disaster that happened at Cockermouth but less of the inaccuracies. Floods occur every year in the UK. Flood plains are being built on and water is not finding a way of escaping.

After a weekend of leaked emails, you'd think global warmists would think twice before blaming everything on their pet subject.

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

OK it could just be their London operations and not the whole company but the former staff of EA Sports London were pretty sure it was the whole company.

Again, if this is accurate and not just hearsay, it's a shame - I remember buying my first Megadrive game which was EA Sports!

I have asked EA Sports for a comment so I'll let you know the veracity of what I've heardUpdate: OK it looks likely that the closure is UK-based. I haven't heard anything back from EA Sports but for such a big games company, if it had filed in the States, would have been noticed by now.

The Queen's Speech was this morning and god it was bad. Here's the list of bills which won't get anywhere before the general election -

1. Fiscal Responsibility Bill - put into law promise to halve deficit

I like this one. How to stuff the Tories up before they're in government. PMQs in 2013 - Labour MP: "The government has failed to halve the deficit and has broken the law. Cameron: "YEs well, if you hadn't of broken the country then introduced this law then maybe we could have sorted it all out within four years."

Yep, burn the house down then make a law banning matches.

2.Financial Services and Business Bill - clamp down on bonuses for bankers taking too many risks

Here we go again. Is Labour embarking on a scorched earth policy? Who decides the risk? What right does a government have to interfer with the business of a privately-owned bank? Who the hell is going to be left in the City? Bet Frankfurt and Dubai won't see any such law.

Ah yes councils are all powerful. Take a lesson from Canute will you. How does this tally with the new super-planning quango which will, I presume, allow further building on flood plains which creates the conditions for flooding...

4.Social Care Bill - neediest elderly to get home care

Blatent politicking. Labour accelerated the cost of elderly care, with private homes essentially becoming the property of local government, and this is to counteract the Tories' idea of giving £8,000 for elderly care.

Not only are GPs being ordered to upload patients information to a central spine (BTW ask your GP to opt you out, it's allowed but the DHS doesn't like people to know that) but now parents will be asked to fill out a four-page child wellbeing review in a pilot scheme in Lincolnshire.

"The Review asks parents to indicate whether their child "often lies or cheats": whether they steal or bully; and how often they eat red meat, takeaway meals or fizzy drinks.

However, the interrogation is not limited to intimate details of a child’s health. Parents responding to the survey are asked to provide details about their health and their partner’s health, whether they or their partner are in paid employment, and even to own up to whether or not their child is upset when they (the parent) returns to a room"

A quick update on the Moorcock story. He posted on his forum this weekend about the Doctor including:

1) I've been watching Dr Who since it began. Haven't liked all the doctors and after Peter Davison stopped watching regularly until the new BBC Wales series.2) Since the Tom Baker series, a lot of my ideas crept into the stories and so in many ways I'll be writing a story which already echoes my own work.3)I do have to submit it to editors so they can make sure it fits into the canon and this, of course, is understandable. By saying it wasn't a tie-in I did, of course, mean that it would be an original novel, not one which was linked to previous stories.

Oh how they sneered when they managed to wrest the other party's lover into their arms. For 12 years, they canoodled, played footsie under the table, shared their dreams.

But all things come to an end and the jilted lover is now screaming and tearing his hair out, "How could they do this to me," he screams. "I thought I was the one."

Two things to note Mandy - 1) Petty revenge is beneath you. It was your party that removed the Ashes in the first place so that, er, Sky could hoover up the rights. 2) You spent 12 years in bed with Murdoch so it is pathetic that you are now running around trying to persuade people that Cameron has done a deal with Murdoch. I didn't see your party trying to chase up the billions of pounds that News International and Sky must surely owe the exchequer. I didn't see Blair objecting to being feted in Australia by Murdoch.

So like all tragic breakdowns in relationships, I think the best thing for you to do is take a deep breath and have a nice cup of tea.

Just noticed something, at PMQs on Wednesday the PM said: "I have to say about the youth unemployment figures that the right hon. Gentleman quotes that 250,000 of that number are full-time students looking for part-time work, and they are not fully unemployed."

Erm, correct me if I'm wrong but if a person is a full-time student they cannot be registered unemployed. So they cannot be part of unemployment figures.

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

I am not going to comment on Brown's latest gaffe as I don't think an attack on a one-eyed person who writes in felt-tip is fair.

What I do find interesting is that Labour have really lost it. Mandy has led the charge by accusing the Sun of acting with a political interest (NSS).

The old Mandy would never have done that. Indeed the old Mandy would have realised that if Brown was to call and apologise then there would be an attack on him and the call would be recorded.

Whatever your personal views on Labour in the last 12-15 years, there is no denying that for the first 10 years the political machine was incredible.

From getting the public to think of the Tories as sleeze to avoiding the same damage during Teflon's era was with one of the best political messaging management teams ever.

Now though that's gone and like The Office, I am now beginning to cringe at each disaster: - from this letter, to looking bored and disinterested at the Festival of Remembrance to not even bowing at the Cenotaph.

Thursday, 5 November 2009

Well the inevitable happened with the Czechs finally signing up to the Lisbon Treaty.

The other inevitable thing was the decision of David Cameron to back down from a referendum.

The third inevitable thing was the tin-helmet brigade shrieking - and backed by their shrill-voiced paper, The Daily Mail - that Cameron has betrayed Britain.

How exactly? C'mon how? He isn't Prime Minister and he never said that there would be a referendum if the Treaty was ratified before the next election, only if it wasn't. Try learning to read Tin-Hatters.

The Treaty no longer exists - it is now law. Now I presume Cameron is acting honourably (for a politican, natch) and has consulted constitutional lawyers about the feasibility of the proposed checks and balances - and judging from the protocol-ignoring reaction of the French there seems to be some truth to this - so good for him for trying to make a bad decision better.

Finally, how must Labour laughing at all this.

Let me remind you again, Cameron didn't "betray" the nation by going back on a referendum...

He did

and

so did he

Oh him as well

The Conservatives were the only ones to keep honouring their manifesto commitment whilst the other two parties sold us down the swanny.

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

l see the worthies are at it again.A Dr Karen Pfeffer has called on cartoons to include a warning about violence and injuries.Haven't we been here before? I can honestly say that watching Tom and Jerry did not traumatise me, nor did it make me want to hit someone with a frying pan.

So not enough with Frankie Boyle resigning from Mock the Week, I hear a call for him to be banned from the BBC.

Listen, it's a comedy quiz. if taking the piss out of the Queen's vagina is OK according to the BBC Trust then surely taking the mick out of some swimmer is OK? Unless BBC Sport has paid taxpayers' money for her appearance of course. or is that too cynical?

If the BBC had some balls this would never had happened. Remember this happened because of one person, after a repeat...

That's right one person, 0.0004% of the average audience and as a result we have lost a very talented, close to the bone comedian, from the programme. And if the reports are real, well sorry Rebecca, but I am sure you have laughed at Frankie's comments about other celebs, just because you got a tax-aided medal doesn't exclude you from ridicule.